Tuesdays with Dorie BCM: Cranberry Crackle Tart

If you’re still on the fence about what to make for this Thursday’s dessert, let me make your decision harder by throwing one more option your way. This Cranberry Crackle Tart from Baking Chez Moi is for people who don’t mind breaking a bit with Thanksgiving tradition. It has a cookie-like base of sweet tart dough (fondly known to those in professional pastry circles as “STD”…we keep it classy), a layer of jam (which you can’t see here) and a meringue topping with cranberries folded though. The topping is like a crispy-edged marshmallow– the sweetness is interrupted by little bursts of softened, tart berries. This is meant to be a larger tart, but I didn’t need so much for the two of us on a random weeknight, so I just made a couple of individual tartlets (they took quite a bit less time to bake, btw). The big one, with its pretty, swirly meringue top and ruby-colored berries peeking through, would make an impressive dessert for a crowd. And it’s a light one, too, after a big dinner.

The hidden jam layer can be any red jam, really, like strawberry, raspberry or cherry. I made a cranberry sauce ahead of time from the extra berries that weren’t going into the tart and I used that instead. We ate our tarts with whipped cream, and my husband said it reminded him of pavlova with a cookie crust.

For the recipe, see Baking Chez Moi by Dorie Greenspan (it’s also here). Don’t forget to check out the rest of the TWD Blogroll and please join us, if you haven’t already!

It’s so good to be baking with you again…just sayin’…your little tarts look wonderful, I did a 6″ for the same reason, just a little dessert is a good thing, too much hanging around would be dangerous. I agree with your husband on the crust flavor, btw. 🙂

Love your mini-tart! If I had made a small one, I wouldn’t have had to force myself to cut myself a small slice every time I passed by in the kitchen! Ha! It’s good to be baking with the TWD bakers again!

That mini-tart is really cute and looks great! What a neat idea to make cranberry sauce and use that instead of jam. I completely agree that it’d be a great dessert for Thanksgiving due to the lightness of the dessert. Love the STD thing. 🙂

STD….lol. The tart looks great and you are so right about the tartness of cranberries cutting into the sweetness.
A 6″ tart is more than enough (I think 😊) for two people. I made a small one too for the same reason.

Love, love, love the mini size! It is just as impressive as the full size tart. I bet this was wonderful using cranberry sauce for the jam. STD. Did not even dawn on me till I read the comments of others. Lol. Another lovely job, Steph!